The Institution of the Answer as a Device of Ontological Containment
Abstract
This paper examines how institutions manage unresolvable questions by monopolizing the conditions under which answers may be formulated, deferred, or suppressed. Foundational narratives are analyzed not by their truth value, but by their role in stabilizing systems under epistemic excess.Using flood myths and contemporary analogies such as algorithmic mediation, the study argues that institutionalized answers function as containment devices rather than resolutions. Ethics is reframed as the administration of non-closure rather than the production of definitive truth.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Foucault
Power
and Ethics
Epistemology
Ethics
and Metaphysics
Philosophical Thought and Analysis
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Publication date
- 17 February 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Preprint